Sisters Juliette, left, and Theresita Ellison, dance to La Cucaracha as they and their fellow Colores de Cristo folklorico dancers open the Student Showcase Concert as part of the 2011 Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference. This year, the Student Showcase will move to the Centennial High School Gymnasium at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Internationally renowned artists and some new venues will be part of the 19th annual Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference, which kicked off Wednesday and runs through Sunday.

Thousands are expected to gather at workshops, a popular Spectacular Concert and a mariachi mass, both at Pan American Center, a student showcase at Las Cruces' new Centennial High School, and the LCIMC Parque Festival, which this year will be a two-day event at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum.

Headlining the Spectacular Concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Pan Am Center, will be vocalist Ezequiel Peña, Las Colibrí, a popular all-female group from Los Angeles, and Mariachi Cobre from Orlando, Fla.

Mariachi Cobre was founded in 1964 in Tucson, by brothers Randy and Steve Carrillo and their friend Mack Ruiz. For several decades, members have served as clinicians and lead instructors at top mariachi conferences, including all 19 years of LCIMC. They have recorded with the Boston Pops and performed with symphonies throughout the United States and with popular vocalists, including Lola Beltran, Linda Ronstadt, Pepe Aguilar, Pedro Fernandez, Ana Gabriel and Graciela Beltran.

Headliner Peña is an award-winning vocalist and charro who has recorded 23 albums. Born in San José del Valle, Nayarit, Mexico, near Puerto Vallarta, Peña moved to California in 1985 and launched his career in 1987, after winning an amateur singing contest and recording three albums with the Banda Vallarta Show.

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"In 1990, Peña began performing with mariachis, and he included horses in his act. His performances as both charro (horseman or cowboy) and singer delighted his audiences and brought awareness of Mexican culture. He celebrates the traditions of the charro with his musical performance," said Phyllis Franzoy, who was one of the founders of the conference here in 1994.

Peña's honors include a 2007 Latin Grammy nomination for Best Banda Album for "A Mucha Honra." His latest album, "Sin Censura," includes songs performed with both banda and mariachi.

In 2008, he was named the "Ambassador of the Spanish Horse in the Americas" and the city of Cuahtla, Jalisco, named its main street for him and honored him with a statue.

Though it will be Las Colibrí's first group appearance at the conference, it will be a nostalgic return for their leader, Susie Garcia.

"I came to your very first conference as a workshop student. I started learning really young, and now I'm a mariachi professional, so I've come full circle," said Garcia in a phone interview from her home base in Los Angeles, where she performs with the group of seven women, ages 22 to 35.

"Our group includes four Grammy winners, and we're all strings: violins, guitarrón, vihuelas and sometimes a harp. We say that we take old-style mariachi and give it new life. We're all Mexican-Americans who were born here, and we are deeply rooted in mariachi tradition. But we're definitely influenced by American music and other genres: jazz, rumba, cumbia. We even have a rocker in our group," Garcia said.

The LCIMC has special meaning in New Mexico's centennial year, Franzoy feels, when we are celebrating the state's unique culture and heritage.
Thousands of young people, and people of all ages, have been impacted through conference concerts and educational workshops in music and dance, she said, and mariachi groups have sprung up in schools and communities throughout the United States.

"It means that cultural art forms will be preserved. We've created a greater cultural awareness and a better understudying of diversity and respect for the cultural arts here in New Mexico. So many have done so much to make this possible," Franzoy said.

Appropriately, young musicians and dancers will show off what they've learned at the new Centennial High School, at the Student Showcase Concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Get tickets, at $10, at the door or call 575-525-1735.

The Diocese of Las Cruces Foundation, Inc. will again sponsor the annual LCIMC Mariachi Mass, with Bishop Ricardo Ramirez presiding and liturgical music by Mariachi Cobre, at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at the Pan Am Center. It's free.

The Parque Festival will feature musicians, food venders and artisans from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Las Cruces Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum. A special appearance by Las Colibrí and the Castro Family Charro exhibition will be highlights on Sunday. Admission is $5 at the door, and free for ages 12 and under.

Tickets for Saturday's Spectacular Concert are $22, $32, $42, $57, available via the Pan Am ticket office at 575-646-1420 or Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com, or 800-745-3000.

For information about the conference, or to volunteer, call the LCIMC office at 575-525-1735, or go to www.lascrucesmariachi.org.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450. Follow her on Twitter @DerricksonMoore.